Some border action x2

I kinda like days where I have NO obligations; NO where to be; NOTHING to do

(except, NO ONE is allowed to come to my house right now, unless s/he promises not to pass judgement.  It's a DISASTER zone!!!)

I was downstairs at 7AM with no real plan on the day.  Somehow....I really can't remember how or why.... but somehow, I found myself in my main carpet area sifting through piles and piles of finished quilts and awaiting flimsies, and collections of centers awaiting borders.

I dug in and pulled out Frost 25, a QOV mystery (#25) from.....2009?  2010?  Ummm....I'd have to look back. 

Frost 25 (73" x 73")

I remember what stopped my progress oh so long ago:  I ran out of the dark purple, which I wanted to use as a border.  Hm.....I found a similar print awaiting in my Easy Street fabrics;  11" remained of it.  So, I cut it up in 1.25" strips for a THIN inner border, then finished it off with a 3" white border.  

The fabric was a Connecting Threads line:  "Twilight Frost," which is partially where the quilt's name came from: Frost 25.  

And I couldn't resist!  Do you recognize the movie playing??? :D

I had my own Twilight marathon for much of the morning hours.  And now that the top is finished, I find myself wondering why I needed to wait so long;  that thin inner border worked nicely to finish off the center.

Not interested in loading it on the quilt frame, I folded it up and moved it to my Flimsy pile. :D

BEB Fallswap (84" x 100")

After some self-convincing, I pulled out the Buckeye Beauty Fall swap center and pieced a 2.5" light border on it.  With oodles of 4-patches left over, a potential 4-patch pieced final border was tried out.... and then I recalled I had 4 yards of this "fallish" Mayfly fabric waiting on the shelf, meant for this quilt!  Cut, cut...sew, sew....press, press.

AND LOAD, LOAD!  I'm halfway through quilting this already!

However, at 2:30, I closed up shop to spend some time coloring with the girls.  Box Tops is offering up a cute lil' turkey for the holiday season.  (Can't you see how excited they all are to pose for this picture?) :}

Happy Sunday!

Tidying lead to a quilt center

I didn't think I was going to have any time this weekend for quilting. However, after almost 3 hours of prepping this morning, I decided that enough time was spent on it; I feel I'm ready for the week well enough.

Yesterday afternoon, my mother (visiting for the weekend) and I went shopping for fabrics for the quilt she requested a few months ago for their "new bedroom." Come to find out, they haven't even painted their bedroom yet!!!! Guess I don't feel so bad anymore.

The quilt pictured was a google find, and thankfully my mother liked the simple elegance of it (... keyword being SIMPLE!)

I fell in love with it; both for the ease of pattern and for the simple geometric beauty of it. Plus---she needs it in King size! This will be the first quilt I will have made where I spared no cost. All the fabric for the top was purchased at full quilt shop prices ('cept for the 20% discount for finishing off TWO bolts. THAT worked out nicely!) With all the batting that my mother has purchased for me, it's really the least I can do.

So, when I headed downstairs today, I had full intensions of cutting into some LOVELY new fabric!!!!

However, since I haven't been sewing much, I wanted to do some tidying up from my previous projects. Blue-n-Gold Pride scraps were cut down and filed into drawers.....

And these Buckeye Beauty units have been moved around for the past two months. I wasn't about to move them around one more time.....therefore they were sewed up, and added to my design wall.

These blocks have been up on the wall for the past month. Rather than have them spend another few months up there, I sewed them too.

And a 64"x80" quilt center was pieced. An inner border is yet to come, and perhaps a pieced border using these extra 4-patch blocks I found....

Unfortunately, this WILL now be set aside until I decide to get back to it again.

Paul snuck downstairs and took a picture of Caitlyn hanging around with me.

Time for me to make sure we're ready for Halloween tomorrow. Nothing like the last minute.

Something new on my design wall

Blue-n-Gold Pride ended up getting pieced today, as well as a backing prepped for it. I was not able to get it loaded onto the frame by dinner time, though. And......frankly, after dinner, I no longer had any ambition to load it.

I wasn't completely unmotivated, though.

I hadn't just "looked" around the sewing room in a bit, so......I stood....turned...... and eyed.

The Fall Buckeye Beauty swap blocks from last year caught my eye. Since Fall is DEFINITELY in the air, I thought it would be nice to see what the status of the layout was.

I could leave this as an 8x8 layout and put those three extra blocks on the back. OR....

I could spend some time cutting into some more scraps in order to make thirteen more blocks to complete the bottom row and an additional row on the top.

And OF COURSE!!!! Once I was done cutting and piecing.... I found a HUGE stack of "extra" 4-patches from the swap. **hitting forehead** I guess I'll have to see about doing some kind of pieced border on this one.

I also haven't posted a Stash Report in QUITE a while. With the additional Buckeye Beauty units tonight, and the Jamestown Landing HSTs this morning, and the 9-patches of the Blue-n-Gold Pride piecing from last week.....
Stash Report: September 5 - 25
Used/wk: 4.819 yds
Purch/wk: 0.00 yds

Used/yr: 145.645 yds
Purch/yr: 81.917 yds

Net Used: 63.728 yds

I am definitely further behind in my "used" category than where I was last year, but my "Net" is MUCH nicer than last year :0)


Aren't these FUN!??? Candace has snack tomorrow, and a cousin of Paul had posted sunflower cupcakes like this on Facebook last week that she had made for HER daughter's snack day. With the girls' help, we made up 24 cupcakes, and enjoyed eating a couple too :0) {{Candace only needs 17 for her class}}.

Another weekend coming to an end. This one kinda FLEW by. You too?

On the frame and on the sewing table...

The main part of the day, I spent piecing a backing for Jen's Diamonds. I didn't have enough of any one, or two, or three fabrics, so I pulled as many blues/browns/cremes I could to create a pieced backing. Mostly made of 10" blocks checkerboarded, with a few strips of fabs here-n-there. At one point, I planned on taking a picture of it before loading it on the frame, but......yeah.....I kinda forgot by the time I came back down from "momma-style-cleaning" in the loft.

MY GOODNESS!!! Will those girls EVER learn how to clean without "momma-style-throwing-into-a-garbage-bag" cleaning?? {{giggle}}....I'm wondering when there aren't going to be any toys LEFT up there because I've tossed all of them in a garbage bag at one time or another. Hmmmm....must be like scraps; they simply multiply over night without knowing how.


Anyway....so Jen's Diamonds is loaded on the frame and will await tomorrow or some other crunch time this week. I simply am too pooped to quilt this tonight; not even starting. Blah....


Gotta LOVE Leaders-n-Enders method! If you haven't heard of this method yet, TRULY TRULY take a few moments of your time in order to SAVE you time in the long run.

Today, while piecing the backing for Jen's quilt, I finished up RRCB Step #2 units, so my game plan tonight is to printout Step #4 and see about prepping that for L/E.

I still have a backup L/E project lying around...my Buckeye Beauty - Fall Swap blocks that I'm making MORE of in order to have a nice large quilt. I have been sewing the L/E for a few months now....very leisurely....so I wanted to have an idea of how many I have in all at this point....

Sixty-seven (67) complete sets to make sixty-seven 8" blocks. So, I'm thinking.....a 7x9 layout (that's 63 total blocks for a center measuring roughly 56"x72"). Four blocks will be left over to use at corner blocks to complete the borders I'll piece together for it.

Hmmm.....guess all these twosies will be pieced for some "extra" 4-patches for some other project in the future.

I'm sure this will come as NO SURPRISE to any other quilter out there.....

I have SO MANY "gonna-be-made" quilts floating around in my mind AND in my sewing room. I made up my mind that this little some-day-to-be-made-into-a-quilt fabric roll is going to be a Christmas gift for my MIL. Oh----soooooo hard to part with it, but....psht! As if I don't have enough other 'some-day-to-be-made-into-a-quilt' fabrics all over my sewing room!!!

I'll share this Random Reflections pattern with her as a possible use for the fabrics.

Okay---still have some energy so I'm off to see about prepping RRCB Step #4.

Happy Saturday Evening!

A full, motivating day & Stash Report 11/8 to 11/14

5:55 AM---wide awake! BUT, I resisted climbing out of bed....I was going to give myself until 6:30. The last time I recall looking at the clock, it was staring back at me saying 6:23, but I OBVIOUSLY fell back asleep before I looked again....because the next thing I knew: it was 7:15. Time to start the day.

French toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast; a lil' bit of mass tidy-ing up by all parties; and then by 8:30, I had my nose in my Statistics book with the intent of prepping for the upcoming week. These few sections I accomplished today will be more than sufficient to get us through this shortened week (no school on Friday).

SO......6 hours later....

... I finally made my way downstairs and I jumped right back in to the In Flight units; I needed to finish piecing 120 triangle units, and then....

...LOTS of pressing! 240 total units need pressing; I'm only half finished.

Taking Bonnie's advice (and because I have NOT been liking the fact that I have needed to cut my threads between chains...), I prepped some more leaders-n-enders pieces. I have been working on my Buckeye Beauty Fall swap units, so I chained up a few more strips and twosies in order to make another batch of 4-patches.


And I have an update on the June Mystery quilt's name...Linda from NZ suggested "Crossing over to Winter" which DID get me thinking about the possible name. Since this quilt is most likely destined for a DEAR DEAR graduate in May 2011, the name "Transitions" is striking me as quite appropriate. So, Linda....thank you for kick starting me towards this quilt name!!!

And a drum roll please......
it has been WEEKS!!! since I've updated my stash report.....

Stash Report: November 8 - 14
Used/week:
5.646 yards
Purchased/week:
0 yards

Used/year
189.049 yards
Purchased/year:
185 yards

Net used:
4.049 yards BACK IN BLACK!!!

A Sunday in review & Stash Report June 21 - 27

I began my morning by cutting up a few 2.5" and 4.5" strips to make up 6 (actually 8) more sets. Two of the sets will stay with me. So, in the end, I will be swapping 18 total Buckeye Beauty sets. We are being requested to just piece the 4-patches and HST's so that each swapper can choose how to piece the final blocks. My blocks will be pieced just as they are laid out; they'll be made up with the same layout at Bonnie's Blue Ridge Beauty, which is also a L/E project of mine that has been set aside so I can work on my Star Struck swap blocks. DARN! I don't have the Blue-Ridge L/E listed in my WIP! Grrrrrr....now that's 12!

This brought me up to lunch time. After which...
we took some time enjoying the sun that finally decided to show up.

After about an hour, we were all back in, ready to start some afternoon projects...

Paintbox was the next project I wanted to spend time with today. I needed to finish piecing the 6 other rows that weren't finished last night. Then---sashing across the width of all the rows. OMGoodness! Pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning. {{that'd be 11 times in case you didn't count}}. PUTZY and enough to drive any ADHD quilter insane with the monotonous steps!!!!

Cassie asked if there was some way to set her up downstairs by me. With a few adjustments and some hunting for another extension cord, I had a new neighbor ;0)

I helped Cassie with the cutting and sandwiching of her back/top/batting/lining, and then set up the Brother with the FMQ foot. Oooo...Cassie was nervous! The first few attempts were tough, so I had her put on my quilting gloves, which seemed to help a little bit, but she was still strugging with the coordination between foot and hands ;0)

This is where she needed to leave it for the evening because it was time for a bath and then bed by 9:00! She has another dentist appointment at 8:30 tomorrow, so I needed to be sure all the girls got to bed at a SOMEWHAT decent time.

I asked Cassie if it was alright if I quilted up the back of her bag. Naturally, she appreciated the assistance. It was fun to work with a small patch to quilt on with the BSR. I haven't used it in quite awhile. This is also a good shot of her piecing. QUITE a bit wonky and I needed to square up the top and back before sandwiching. Still fun though!

Boy! I had had enough of those Paintbox sashings though! It was like putting on borders and we ALL know how some of us feel about those things!!! So, the final piecing of the top will be a goal for tomorrow. In the meantime, I grabbed my Jared Takes a Wife blocks and finished sewing on the gold and light 2" squares to make the "arrow units." I'll finish trimming off those corners when I'm done posting. And...**GASP**....no double sewing on these! They really are too small for even ME to deal with. They'll just be thrown into the crumb box.

And don't you dare laugh at this! I have FINALLY mastered BOILING EGGS! Yeah, yeah....sounds simple enough, right? But I can't STAND IT when you attempt to peel an eggs and the *&@(*! shell sticks to the egg-white, and you LOSE most of your egg! Oh, and BTW---I HATE yolks! The only time I eat the yolk is if I make up a quick lil' deviled-egg treat! Yummmmmm.... Or if I whip up a quick egg salad. Basically, the yolk only gets eaten if it gets mixed up with Miracle Whip (NOT real mayo. YUCK!)

Anyway---my mistake was always putting the eggs in when I first put the water on the stove. I only did it that way because it seemed when I waited for the water to boil and THEN put the eggs in, too many of them cracked due to the instant expansion due to the boiling water. Well---the last batch I boiled, I tried to boil the water first again. Then put the eggs in for 15 minutes. THEN (and I think this is important too!!!), run them under cold water the instant you finish boiling. I even let them soak in cold water for a while (one time it was even over night because I forgot about them).

You'll get one lovely peeled egg just about everytime :0)

Okay, the nervous moment I've been waiting for all week due to all of my NAUGHTY purchases!!!!!

Stash Report: June 21 - 27
Used/week: 10.319 yards
Purchased/week: 10.25 yards WHEW! At least I used more than I bought!!!!

Used/year: 159.15 yards
Purchased/year: 168 yards

Net used: -8.85 yards

Okay...NO MORE FABRIC BUYING! Sure, 159 USED yards looks great....but 168 BOUGHT this year! Oh golly! Time to start using it!!!!!!l


Here is Judy's Stash Report post for the week to look around at how everyone else is doing with their stashes.

And the posts keep coming...Judy's June Mystery; Too Good to Cut & Buckeye Beauty sets

I headed downstairs around 6:30 after catching up on some blogs and plopped in Lara Croft-Tomb Raider. By the time the ending credits were rolling, I was pressing the final seams and trimming the last of the dog ears...
I felt MOST of my morning was spent trimming ... 72 HST's that needed to be trimmed to 3". UGH!
I really DO NOT LIKE TRIMMING------but I guess it is one of those very necessary evils!

And just to prove that I trimmed more than sewed...here are the flying geese units, finished, with the trimmed dogears.

By this time, Candance had made her way downstairs, wiping the sleep from her eyes and wanting some breakfast. French-toast, little smokies, toast with jelly, cottage cheese and some Sunny Delight....and now we're ready for the day to take off...

And an update on Cassie's reading: she hasn't given me any titles to post on the blog yet, but that may be changing this morning when she finally makes an appearance. When I headed dowstairs, I noticed Cassie's bed-side light was on in her room. LOL....it appears she fell asleep while reading last night; glasses still on the face....

11:30 AM Update
MORE TRIMMING!!!!!
The Buckeye Beauty block units were trimmed up and pinned, ready for mailing...

And then I trimmed up the 15 blocks for my Too Good to Cut Challenge. Finally making some progress on that baby. Top is partially pieced, with the first border on...but now I'm checking out the site that gave me the directions because I'm not sure about the 2nd border. My print out seems to be missing something. The pattern is by Jennifer Chiaverini; using her Johanna's Collection line by RedRoosterFabrics (link will lead you directly to the pattern if you'd like). I am not using her line; merely her pattern. I have a feeling my quilt will be named "Moondance" due to the line of fabrics I am using....

Okay...off to look and then make up some lunch.

Judy's June mystery-step #1; Buckeye Beauty swap blocks

I pieced together the "units" for the Buckeye Beauty Swap I'm participating in. We are asked NOT to sew the units together beyond this point because of the numerous ways they can be matched up in all variety of patterns...
5 of these...
5 of these....
2 of these....

HEY! I'm ahead of the ballgame with this swap!!! They don't need to be mailed until July 15th.

Cassie had a dentist appointment today {{I did too, but decided to reschedule it due to the Poison Ivy on my face...} Knowing I was to be sitting in a wait-area for 30+ minutes, I decided to cut into the fabrics chosen for Judy's June Mystery. Prior to leaving for the appt, I cut all the strips needed for step #1 {{I'm going to cut fabrics as the clues come out}}. Then I took a travel cutting mat and the strips along to do all the subcuts. I even was able to do most of the diagonal-line drawing needed to complete step one.
Tonight, I chain-sewed the 3.5" squares to make the 72 HST's, but haven't cut them apart yet. Tomorrow, I hope to finish all of step #1

Two "couples" of goldfinches were outside our window this morning, battling over this feeder; the victorious couple looked mighty satistified {little did they know that the other two just beebopped over to our other feeder}}.

Thursday is almost over. Hope yours was a lovely as mine! Here's to Friday!!! I FINALLY don't need to leave the house!!! I can stay in my jammies for as long as I want and veg. Although, I will probably get outside a bit to weed some of the strawberries. The garden still looks great; so far, I'm staying ahead of the weeds!!!!

Buckeye Beauty swap units...

I've spent much of the morning cutting up some fabs for a Buckeye Beauty swap I will be signing up for. I needed to email the hostess to make sure my sets are okay, so I figured I'd post some pics of what I've put together for groups/sets..... It's a "Fall Themed" swap....

Happy Thursday....